Sleepy
by Flynt Coal
Summary: (Hinanami fluff) Nanami wants to hang out with Hinata as much as she can, but keeps falling asleep in the middle of doing so. She feels bad about it, and is determined to stay awake.


"Nerr… mm…?"

Nanami Chiaki stirred awake slowly, and yawned peacefully, stretching. She eyed her surroundings, still in a bit of a daze, and realized she was in her cottage. But when did she enter the place, anyways? She closed her eyes and recollected her thoughts.

"Ahh… that's right, Hinata-kun…" She remembered hanging out with Hinata-kun on the beach. They were playing a game of some sort, as well as running around laughing a lot. But from there her memory cut off… until she realized what she did. Again.

"Erghh…" She frowned, and her cheeks puffed out a little while she facepalmed. "I fell asleep while hanging out with him again, didn't I…"

It always happened. Nearly every time. Nanami truly wanted to do something about it, but that was just how she was. She didn't want Hinata-kun to assume she thought he was boring. That wasn't even close, she enjoyed every minute of time they spent together, whether it was exploring and playing around, or seriously trying to learn more about the island. And yet, it took a lot of energy, and spending that much energy can make a person sleepy. That person in question was Nanami, even if she tried as hard as she could to stay awake.

It was beginning to look like a routine at this point. They would hang out, then at one point she would doze off, then wake up in her cottage. Hinata-kun confessed that he noticed her falling asleep, and always carried her to her room afterwards. He reassured her that he really didn't mind and he usually felt a little tired himself, but that was no excuse. She was determined to do something about it.

She fell backwards onto her bed and spread out her arms, sighing. See, she would do something about it, if she hadn't tried everything already. Energy drinks and sugar didn't have much of an effect on her, and she just felt even more tired after their effect was over. It didn't make a difference if she got a good night's sleep beforehand either. They've even hung out in the morning and a bit into the afternoon, but she was still tired, even if it was the middle of the day.

She had even asked Hinata-kun to wake her up if she did, but he never did for some reason. He just carried her back gently.

She leaned back up slowly, and figured she had best head out to go apologize. It wasn't really time for the usual morning meeting, but Hinata-kun usually went early, so maybe she could catch him there.

As she walked, she thought about his promise to hang out today too. They were going to go treasure hunting around the houses in the far back of the third island, behind Titty Typhoon. They seemed more or less dilapidated and slightly dangerous, but that just made it all the better.

She reached the second floor of the hotel restaurant, and just as expected, there he was, poking around on his student handbook while sipping a tall glass of orange juice. He glanced upwards casually, acknowledging her presence, and drank again gulp of juice.

"Ah… Hinata-kun?" She called, trying to look serious despite still being half-asleep.

"Mm, Nanami. What's up?" He responded coolly, bringing his attention away from the handbook and towards her.

She brought her finger up to her chin and thought for a second. "I just wanted to apologize for falling asleep… again... yesterday. I think."

Hinata sighed, and looked directly at her. "Nanami… come on, you remember what I said last time, right?"

Nanami bit her lip a little. She did remember. "Um… you said, 'don't worry about it at all, you really don't have to apologize anymore. I know you get sleepy easily and it doesn't bother me, okay? It's actually a little… cute. So if it happens again you don't need to say sorry, alright? Trust me, it's not a problem.' ... is that right?"

Hinata blinked in surprise. "Was that… word for word?"

Nanami hunched her shoulders a little. "I… yes, I believe so."

"Your memory really scares me…" He took another sip from the glass. "But it is true, so just remember that."

"Mm." Nanami rocked on her heels idly, and dismissed the thought. Instead, she thought about their adventure later on today. This was gonna be it. This time she wasn't gonna fall asleep. This time… for sure.

It wasn't long before breakfast was done, and everyone disbanded from the restaurant, including Hinata and Nanami who headed for the third island.

It turns out there wasn't much exploring to be done. Most houses were empty, or at least everything in them destroyed. Not only that, but there wasn't much evidence of what had happened there either. Some houses were smashed, others looked like they went up in flames. It was a pretty depressing place. However, there were a few intact things here and there, but nothing much of value.

Nanami was moving a large hunk of broken sheet metal to see what was below it, when she heard a soft gasp from behind her, and noticed Hinata there, putting something in his bag he brought along for treasures.

"Ehh? Hinata-kun, did you find something?"

"Oh, uh, no… I mean, yes, but… I'll show you later." He smiled reassuringly, and made off for the next house over.

Nanami huffed, her eyebrows narrowed. "That won't work at all." She leapt over a block of concrete and ran at Hinata.

She grabbed Hinata's bag and frowned. "Lemme see."

"No…! Not yet, I said later…" He swung the bag out of her grasp.

"I wanna see it… I think…" She lunged for it again, but Hinata was quicker, and the bag was again moved away swiftly. She giggled as she caught hold of one of the straps, and Hinata laughed while pulling it away, picking at her fingers to get her to let go. After a few more minutes of scrambling around, Nanami admitted defeat, and caught her breath. "Oh no… Hinata-kun, you can't make me tired… or…"

He ruffled her hair. "Hey… if you fall asleep, it's okay, I swear."

"No… it isn't…"

"Come on, then. It's starting to get dark already." He offered his hand, and pulled her to her feet. Nanami dusted herself off, and looked up. Was it really so late already? Next she examined the area. A seemingly stable building wasn't far away, and it looked climbable too.

"Ne, Hinata-kun. I'll race you on top of that building there."

"You're on." They both charged at the structure, and Nanami reached for any footholds she could find. It wasn't a tall house, only one floor high. She didn't know where Hinata was, but she was almost at the top, and was probably gonna win…!

"Nearly there, nearly there…" She told herself, reaching higher and higher, until she realized the footholds cut off there. She was so close to the top, but there was nowhere to grab onto from here. There had to be something…!

"Need help?" A hand came down, and she glanced up in surprise. Hinata stood over her, with a half grin on his face. She accepted the helping hand and climbed upwards onto the roof.

"I could have won if there was a place to reach onto there…"

"Hmm, probably." Hinata chuckled.

"Oooh… the stars are coming out…" She observed in awe. They dotted the sky like grains of sugar, and shone ever so brightly. The pair took a moment in silence to stare in amazement at the night sky. It was surprisingly peaceful, a feeling that didn't happen much on an island brimmed with so much fear.

"Oh Nanami, do you want to hang out tomorrow?" Hinata asked after a while.

"Sure, but… what would we do?"

"I have an idea, but it's a surprise."

"Well… if you say so…" Without thinking Nanami closed her eyes. The tiredness from using all that energy, the tranquility of the island, the night sky… it was all getting to her at once. She couldn't fight it, it was creeping up on her.

"Hey, uh… Nanami… I was wondering if… maybe, yo… u…"

It all droned out for her, and darkness covered her consciousness.

...

Then, she woke up in her cottage.

"Errr... not again…" She couldn't believe herself, that she let it happen again.

"Today… today is the day, I think." It wasn't about to happen again and she was sure of it. When she hung out with Hinata today, she would win this time, and not fall asleep again. As the morning routine carried out again, and once again she apologized to Hinata, eventually they met up again.

"Where are we going, Hinata-kun…?" He said it was a surprise what they were doing today, so she had next to no clue where they were headed.

"Just my cottage. I found something you may like." He grinned.

"Oh… like, at the destroyed houses yesterday? Are you going to tell me what you found?" To be honest, she was actually still pretty curious, especially when he promised to show her later.

Hinata stopped the unlock the door. "It'll help you too. What's one thing that will keep you awake and focused?"

"I don't know... I've been looking for something that did that…. did you find one?"

"I did indeed." The door swung open, and lying on the ground was a slightly rusted, but still generally intact game system. Nanami gasped sharply, and fell to the ground towards it.

"Hinata-kun! This is amazing! Does it work?"

"I tested it out last night, actually. It does."

"What are we waiting for, then?" She switched it on, and an image flickered on the TV set in the room. Hinata laughed softly at her energized reaction, and took a controller. He was gonna do terrible at this game, but it was for Nanami, after all.

A few hours later of Hinata failing to Nanami so terribly it was embarrassing, (Well, she was a SHSL Gamer anyways…) Hinata noticed it turning dark again, and looked towards his opponent. She was still eager and raring to go, and didn't have an ounce of exhaustion in her eyes. He knew this would work for her.

"Let's play another match, Hinata-kun!"

"I'm just going to lose again… can't we do co-op mode and fight against the computer players as a team? Then maybe I could stand a fair fighting chance…"

"If you want to, I'm fine with that. Remember the strategy I told you with that character, okay? Try to get behind the opponent, and hit Down+B immediately, then leap out of the way. Also, make sure you stay in the center of the stage…" She went on, still brimming with energy, and Hinata had no idea where she got it from. But he was glad to see her like this, then she wouldn't feel bad about falling asleep whenever they met up.

As she immediately picked the hardest difficulty, much to Hinata's dismay, she played the game shockingly well. "I'm so glad… I've always wanted to play this game, Hinata-kun."

"Wait… you mean to say you never played it before? And yet you're this skilled at it?"

"Mm." She nodded, "I'm not actually doing too well…"

"You're doing fantastic!"

The game proceeded on. At one point, Nanami got up to use the bathroom, and when she returned, to her surprise, Hinata was fast asleep, head against the wall. During the rush of energy from playing the game, she hadn't realized him getting more and more tired as the evening progressed. She felt bad, as there was no way she could lift and carry him onto the bed.

She switched off the game system, and grabbed blankets down, wrapping them around the sleeping boy. Then she gave him a gentle hug, but before she let go she felt a familiar feeling of tiredness take her over, and ended up falling asleep herself.

Before she let go of her fleeting consciousness, she hummed and whispered, "Thank you, Hinata-kun…" before peacefully falling asleep to the gentle, lulling rhythm of Hinata's breath.


End file.
